Capitol renovations begin to take shape

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BY JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star

Erika Sanchez-Goodwillie earned her share Thursday of the $564,000 Capitol chamber and lounge restoration cost with a cotton swab and a scalpel.

Tim Auten, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln history major, joined the assistant conservator in spot-cleaning water marks from a walnut beam, 40 feet in the air on a plywood floor anchored to scaffolding that filled the room.

They scrubbed the edges of the beam oh-so gently, so as not to harm the original finishes any more than absolutely necessary.

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Assistant Conservator Erika Sanchez-Goodwillie cleans water damage to the top of the George W. Norris Legislative Chamber on Thursday afternoon while working on the restoration and improvement project at the State Capitol. (Michael Paulsen)

Assistant Conservator Erika Sanchez-Goodwillie cleans water damage to the top of the George W. Norris Legislative Chamber on Thursday afternoon while working on the restoration and improvement project at the State Capitol. (Michael Paulsen)

Between 1:30 in the afternoon and 2:50, Auten had completed two square inches.

Six to seven people are working on any given day to restore the ceiling and walls of the legislative chamber, and soon the senators’ lounge across the hall, said Bob Ripley, Capitol administrator.

Already, observers can see a dramatic difference in the ceiling’s lightened wood and the almost translucent glow of the 23-carat gold stencil work.

“They have not looked this luminous since they were installed and completed in 1932,” Ripley said.

Seeing the renovated ceiling at eye level, now mostly free of decades of cigarette smoke and accumulated dirt, is likely a once-in-a-lifetime event, Ripley says. Some Capitol staff have been invited up for the restoration tour.

The ceiling work — about 70 feet east to west and 55 to 60 feet north to south — is 95 percent completed. The work on the Indiana limestone and tile walls is half to two-thirds done, Ripley said.

The pigskin on the west Chamber’s nine interior doors also is being restored.

Ripley said the chamber work should be completed in July, and the lounge, with its comparable walnut, gold stenciling and limestone, by Sept. 15.

The deadline is Nov. 1, when hearings and other activities will resume in the chamber, he said.

Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.